Dear Colleagues

Some self promotion -- Marisa Abrajano and I just completed a 
paper that studies the extent that Congressional incumbents 
provide verifiable information in their political campaign 
advertising and/or stylistic messages designed to appeal to 
minority voters.  We find that incumbents are more likely to 
provide verifiable policy information (specific actions taken on 
policy choices that can be checked out by others) the closer their 
voting choices in Congress are to the preferences of the voters in 
their districts.  Incumbents appear to either tell the truth about 
their policy choices in office in campaign ads when they've pleased 
voters or be vague when they haven't, suggesting that they are 
constrained to making credible campaign statements in their 
advertising.  We also find some evidence of substitution of stylistic 
messages designed for minorities for messages of substance.  

The paper is called "All Style and No Substance?  The Strategic 
Calculus of Advertising to Minority Voters" and is available online 
at 
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/politics/seminars/
abrajano_morton.pdf if you are interested!  Comments are certainly 
welcome!  Becky